


Agent Fulcrum

by ValorousLeader



Category: Star Wars: Rebels
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Cross-Posted on FanFiction.Net, Gen, Hera is so done with everything, Hurt Alexsandr Kallus, Kallus needs a hug, Mentioned CT-7567 | Rex, Mentioned Maketh Tua, Parental Hera Syndulla
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-13
Updated: 2020-09-13
Packaged: 2021-03-06 20:07:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,916
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26444623
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ValorousLeader/pseuds/ValorousLeader
Summary: What if the rebels hadn't known who Fulcrum was?
Comments: 2
Kudos: 63





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> The times in the show where Kallus directly helped the rebels would not have happened. Just imagine he helped them in more subtle ways. And Ezra didn’t go to extract him. This is an AU. But I haven’t watched all of the show and what I have seen I wasn’t scrutinizing, so there could be some unintended errors or deviants from canon. If there are, please let me know. I’ll be sure to edit. My knowledge of these characters is based on the episodes I have seen, along with YouTube and fanfiction. If you feel I’m not writing the characters to talk and act the way they should, again let me know and I’ll edit. I’ve decided that there are multiple Fulcrums, organized and directed by Cassian. Since whether or not this is true is unclear in the show, this doesn’t necessarily fall into the AU detail portion. Please favorite, follow, and review. Note: I tend to write short chapters.

Captain Hera Syndulla of the Rebel Alliance walked up to the holoprojector, where Ezra Bridger, Kanan Jarrus, rebel spy Captain Cassian Andor, and holograms of General Dodonna, Commander Sato, and Ryder Azadi were gathered.

“We’ve just received a new transmission from Fulcrum,” Hera announced, then played the first message.

“This is Fulcrum with an urgent message. Thrawn knows abou-.” The message sputtered out. The rebels looked at each other.

“Thrawn knows?” Kanan asked. “Knows about what?”

“About the attack on Lothal?” Ezra theorized.

“Something’s happened,” Ryder announced. “Most of the Imperial fleet has left the system. What does it mean?”

It clicked in Hera’s mind. “Thrawn knows we’re here. All ships, battle stations.”

General Dodonna was unsure. “How can you be certain?”

“The last time this happened the Empire ambushed us on Garel.” Ezra looked at the sky, already expecting to see Star Destroyers looming.

“We have to assume,” Hera continued, “that Thrawn has discovered Fulcrum.”

Captain Andor, who up to this point had remained silent and observing, spoke up, “We knew it would happen eventually.”

“Why weren’t we told about this? And I can’t believe you decided to leave him in there.”

“Any information regarding a Fulcrum is top secret,” the captain defended. “I’m in charge of that division and I get to decide what information is revealed. And we didn’t mean to leave him there. We actually sent someone in to get him out, but he decided to stay. Said there was still more he could do. He knew the risks, probably better than most people. He didn’t plan on making it out alive.”

“So there’s nothing we can do?”

“He knew the risks,” Andor repeated simply.

Someone on Commander Sato’s ship called him over. “Commander Sato, we have Imperial Star Destroyers incoming.”

Five Star Destroyers emerged from hyperspace in blockade formation. Hera scowled at the indicators on the monitor.

“Phoenix Fleet, set defense position Oric one.” Sato ordered, and the rebel fleet positioned accordingly. “Alert rebel command.”

Ryder’s transmission disappeared. “What happened?” Ezra asked. “Where’s Ryder?”

“They’re jamming long-range transmissions,” Hera realized with slight panic.

General Dodonna looked at her. “We have to scrub the mission.”

Ezra sighed. “We were so close.”

Hera nodded. “Evacuate all ground staff,” she ordered. “We’re getting out of here.”

Alarms sounded and the base burst into action, staff running to ships. Captain Andor sent commands through his comlink for his ship to be prepared.

General Dodonna gave the command for the frigates already in space to jump to hyperspace and regroup. Commander Sato protested. “I still have people on the surface.”

“If we wait, they’ll cut us to pieces, Commander.”

Sato scowled, then nodded. “Go. We will cover you.”

“Signal the other frigates to jump.”

The first frigate jumped, then reappeared, sounding alerts.

“Something’s pulled them out of hyperspace,” Dodonna realized.

Sato was grim. “If that is true, there will be no escape for us.”

One of the Star Destroyers fired at the frigate that had attempted to jump. It started to go down as another Star Destroyer appeared. It was the Chimaera. Thrawn had arrived.

Hera was starting to panic. She could usually go through a battle with steady nerves, even surrounded by comrades being destroyed, but then again, normally she’d be flying the Ghost, in her element as a pilot. This standing and commanding at the base on Atollon’s surface, while rebel ships fell to Thrawn’s fleet in space, was unnerving. 

As she stressed over her troops, the holoprojector flickered on. It was Thrawn, standing with his arms behind his back, a smug expression on his face. Though the other Rebellion leaders were only with her as holograms, Hera could see their surprise just as plainly as if they were actually with her.

“General Dodonna, Commander Sato, Captain Syndulla,” Thrawn greeted them, sounding for all the world like a gracious host talking to his guests. “At last we meet in this theater of war, however briefly. There is no escape and your forces are badly outnumbered. This rebellion ends today.” Now he just sounded pleased with himself.

“We‘ll never surrender to you, Thrawn.” Hera snapped, emboldened by his smug attitude.

“You misunderstand, Captain. I’m not accepting surrenders at this time. I want you to know failure, utter defeat, and that it is I who delivers it, crashing down upon you.”

He paused for a moment, then nodded to someone behind him. Sounds of a struggle came through. “And none of this would have been possible without the help of your Agent Fulcrum.”

Hero froze. Her belief had been right. Fulcrum, whoever he was, had been discovered and probably made to suffer for what he’d done.

“Or perhaps I should call him…” Thrawn paused dramatically, and two Death Troopers came into view, dragging a struggling someone between them. One of them grabbed some of the prisoner’s hair and pulled, forcing their head up to reveal the beaten and bloodied face of…

“... Kallus.”

Agent Kallus?! Agent Kallus was Fulcrum?! How did that even make sense? Sure, his avid pursuit of them had slacked recently, but she’d assumed it was because he was busy with Admiral Thrawn. There was no way this was real. It had to be a trick, some sort of convoluted plan of Thrawn’s. 

She looked over the long-time enemy and terror of her crew, her family. One of his eyes was swollen almost shut, and his lip was split and bleeding. His uniform was black, but there seemed to be darker patches. Blood? His once perfectly smoothed-back hair was unruly and a lock fell down on to his face. Oddly enough this seemed to have more of an impact on her.

After letting them get a good look, Thrawn continued. “Now, let us proceed.”

The transmission ended, and Thrawn, along with the newly revealed Fulcrum, disappeared.

Hera whirled on Captain Andor. “You knew.” It wasn’t a question, more of an accusation.

“Of course I knew. It’s my job to know a Fulcrum’s identity.”

“I can maybe understand you withholding this in any other case, but this is personal!”

“With all due respect, Captain,” Andor spoke, not sounding very respectful, “that is exactly why you weren’t told. You and your crew are too personally involved to be able to make a rational, unbiased decision in this matter. And besides, Kallus has operated as a Fulcrum for several months now and has more than earned the same secrecy as any other operative. We saw the value of having a spy as high up as an ISB agent, and the necessity of keeping his identity hidden.”

But-it’s Kallus!” Ezra protested. Frankly, Hera was surprised this was the first time he’d spoken since Thrawn had dropped the bombshell on them. “How can you trust him? Why would he help us? How do you know he wasn’t the one who gave Thrawn our location?”

“I trust him because he proved himself. How do you think Commander Wren and the two defectors made it out of Skystrike Academy? Did you ever stop and wonder how they made it to the hanger without troopers finding them? Or how Kallus, who knows what Miss Wren looks like very well, didn’t seem to recognize her? He also kept troopers away from you and Kanan when you escaped the Imperial factory on Lothal. I don’t know if Thrawn found out from him, but I can assure you if Kallus did tell him, they did not get it out of him easily. And as to why I have no idea.”

“But-”

“Ezra.” That was all Kanan said, but his meaning was clear. Stop talking.

“Yes, Kanan.”

“I may not like or believe it any more than you do, but right now, we all have things to do.”


	2. Chapter 2 - Kallus's POV

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kallus on the bridge

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is basically all self-indulgence. Technically it doesn’t move the story along, and just sticking with the Ghost crew would make more sense for the point of this story, but I just can’t. I love the ‘Kallus on the Chimaera bridge’ stories and I couldn’t resist. I hope you like it.

The Death Troopers dragged Kallus out of the lift and onto the bridge. He supposed he could’ve stood, but he didn’t really want to. Everything hurt, agonizingly all over, but his right leg was in agony. Thrawn had defeated him in combat by a well-planned kick to his old injury but he hadn’t been just hurt then. The Death Troopers hadn’t shied away from hitting it when they decided to ‘teach him respect’. It was more likely an ordered punishment form Thrawn, as an attempt to make him feel guilty about his choice. The Death Troopers had done plenty to him, but he stuck with his decision.

It hurt, but he forced himself to look up. Thrawn moved next to Governor Pryce, who until Thrawn’s arrival had been in command on the bridge. She looked Kallus over and scowled, but she didn’t seem surprised. Apparently, she already knew he was Fulcrum. Scratch that, the Emperor probably knew by now. 

“What of Governor Tarkin’s prisoners?” Pryce asked Thrawn, referring to the rebel frigate that was starting to burn and disassemble. Apparently this wasn’t to be a total massacre. Tarkin wanted the rebel high command as prisoners. Kallus looked down guiltily. That would likely include Captain Syndulla of the Ghost crew. He’d tried to help her team but… instead, he’d led the Empire right to them.

“General Dodonna is known for his courage,” Thrawn answered her. “He wouldn’t be aboard the first vessel to flee. Its crew is therefore irrelevant.”

Kallus seethed. Irrelevant? Dozens, maybe hundreds of lives, irrelevant? Even as he seethed, however, a small part of himself whispered that not too long ago, he’d thought the exact same way.

Thrawn turned to the communications officer. “Bring me in command with the rebel command. I wish to talk with them.”

The officer connected the transmission and the holoimages of General Dodonna, Commander Sato, and Captain Syndulla, only one of which Kallus had actually ‘met’, but he recognized the others from numerous Imperial Security Bureau reports. Most ISB agents wouldn’t have remembered the faces of the rebel command, but by all standards, Kallus had supposedly been a top agent.

“General Dodonna, Commander Sato, Captain Syndulla,” Thrawn greeted them. “At last we meet in this theater of war, however briefly. There is no escape and your forces are badly outnumbered. This rebellion ends today.” His tone said it all. He knew he was going to win.  
“We‘ll never surrender to you, Thrawn.” Captain Syndulla shot back. Kallus had to smile. The rebels never did admit defeat, did they? Do we, he thought to himself.

“You misunderstand, Captain. I’m not accepting surrenders at this time. I want you to know failure, utter defeat, and that it is I who delivers it, crashing down upon you.”

He paused for a moment, then nodded to the Death Troopers. They started to drag Kallus towards Thrawn. He struggled, not really for any purpose, but because he would. He regretted it, as his broken ribs and bruised everything else begged him to stop, but Thrawn had brought out an amazing amount of spite in him. He had no intention of moving with the troopers easily. 

Thrawn spoke. “And none of this would have been possible without the help of your Agent Fulcrum.”

Oh stars no. No no no no. He can’t.

Despite his struggles, the troopers managed to drag him into the view of the holoprojector. He kept his head low, grasping for any way to keep the rebels from seeing his face. He knew what their reaction would be, and it wouldn’t be welcoming.

Thrawn was enjoying this. “Or perhaps I should call him…”

Kallus would’ve rolled his eyes over the dramatic pause, but his orbital bone was broken, making eyerolls painful. However, even if it hadn’t been broken, he couldn’t have done it anyway, since one of the Death Troopers grabbed his hair and yanked back, forcing him to face the holoprojector. Somehow he felt this wasn’t good for his concussion.  
“...Kallus.”

The hand holding his hair forced him to stare straight ahead at the holoimages of the rebel leaders. Dodonna and Sato were surprised, but their shock was nowhere near Syndulla’s. He could handle the shock, but the disbelief, the refusal to believe he could be Fulcrum, hurt him more than he’d expected.

Thrawn finished up his gloating. “Now, let us proceed.” The transmission ended.

I hate Thrawn. He snorted to himself. Force knows that’s a novel thought.

The rebel ships moved into formation, spewing out dozens of fighters. Impressive, for a group of rebs. He knew, however, that it would be nothing compared to the might that Thrawn had brought.  
“Sato is employing a Danaan tactic,” Thrawn observed. “Bold, but I expect no less from the best commander to come out of the Mykapo system.” He turned to Pryce. “Reinforce our center and send in the fighters.”

Kallus saw the Empire’s TIE fighters enter the fray and thought he could almost hear their signature squeal as they moved towards the rebels’ ragtag squadrons.

Thrawn opened up a transmission to Admiral Konstantine and began instructing his subordinate. “Konstantine, keep your Indictor-cruiser back until I order otherwise.”

“Why not just attack now with overwhelming force?” Konstantine questioned. “I could-”

“Because I know these rebels; I’ve studied them. They will no doubt defy convention and attempt something unexpected. We will be prepared for it as long as you do exactly as I say.”

Konstantine sneered. “As you wish.” He ended the transmission abruptly.

“Fighting over glory?” Kallus snarked. He probably wasn’t in the best position for it, handcuffed and held down by two guards, but he didn’t care. Thrawn had opened up a well of spite and defiance he hadn’t known existed before.

Thrawn barely turned, cool as a dead star. “I do not require glory, only results for my Emperor. Now, Agent Kallus,” he purred, “You are going to answer my question from earlier. Why did you defect?”  
Stars, the man’s obsessed. Is his lack of control over this really bothering him that badly?

Kallus cracked a slight smile, as much as his swollen face and concussion would allow. “Wouldn’t you like to know?”

That was probably a mistake. One of the Death Troopers jabbed him in the back, hard. He was pretty sure the trooper had aimed for one of the broken ribs.

Thrawn smiled, the smile of one with all the power and all the time in the galaxy. “I think you will tell me, eventually. Troopers, prepare your shock sticks.”

Karabast.  
“Every time a rebel ship destroys one of ours, the troopers will shock you. Let’s see if your reason and your determination to keep that reason a secret holds up for very long.”

Dogfights filled the viewport. A TIE fighter raced towards the Chamaera, pursued by an X-Wing. The X-Wing fired and the TIE fighter exploded in a blinding flash.

The shock came. Kallus screamed and spasmed, but he said nothing. His last thought before his brain succumbed to just screaming was, I feel like a reb now.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I like to think of Konstantine ending the transmission abruptly as like a Star Wars hanging-up on someone. I hope you like this chapter.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Spectres meet Kallus. Some of them aren't too happy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here it is! Chapter 3. I’m so sorry about the longer wait for this chapter! A lot of things came up (including but not solely other stories). This will probably be very ‘dialogue and exposition’-heavy and I have no idea how good I am at dialogue, so let’s see how this goes. I’m excited about the content anyway. I hope you are too. I find explanation dialogue very satisfactory. I apologize if it’s dumb.

_ As the rebel fleet escapes… _

Hera was exhausted physically, mentally, and emotionally, but until her ship jumped to hyperspace and the people on it were taken care of, she couldn’t rest. She was the captain, after all.

Kanan and Zeb were with her on the bridge, all tense but relief starting to set in. They were almost out, almost away.

As she adjusted the  _ Ghost _ ’s trajectory, she looked down and happened to see the flashing transmitter. “We have an incoming transmission?”

“What?” Zeb leaned over a disgruntled Kanan to look. “It’s Imperial.”

“Is it Thrawn?” Kanan looked ready to scream if it was.

A voice came through the transmitter. “This is Fulcrum… please.” The voice stopped and coordinates flashed on the transmitter.

“Fulcrum?” Zeb was confused. “What’s he doing here? And why does he sound like Kallus…?”

Hera scowled. Right. Zeb hasn’t been there during Thrawn’s transmission. Zeb would be furious if she helped Kallus, and she didn’t feel too eager about prolonging his life either, but Captain Andor claimed that he had helped. And letting someone die, even someone as vile as Kallus didn’t sit well with her. She turned the  _ Ghost _ towards the coordinates. Probably an escape pod.

“Well… so Thrawn captured Fulcrum… and it turns out that Fulcrum is…” she winced. “...Kallus.” Time for the explosion that was Garazeb Orrelios when he’s mad.

“ _ What _ ?” Hera prepared for the yelling. “I can’t believe it; he actually listened.”

“ _ What _ ?” Kanan stared at Zeb and Hera inwardly gawked, even as she flew towards the escape pod.

“You see-”

Hera interrupted him. “We don’t have time for this. Zeb, I’ve caught the escape pod. Go get… Kallus, then jettison it. But I want a full explanation for whatever you were talking about as soon as possible.”

“Yes, Captain.”

After Zeb left, Kanan and Hera turned towards each other. Kanan’s confusion was obvious. “I don’t even wanna know.”

She snorted. “I thought for sure he’d make me leave Kallus, but he seemed… excited, almost.”

“Don’t wanna know.”

Hera launched the  _ Ghost _ into hyperspace, then settled back with a sigh, feeling peaceful in their escape. That peace, however, was soon interrupted by Sabine’s voice over the com.

_ “Hera, we’ve got a situation. Agent Kallus is in the common room.” _

“Alright, we’re coming.”

The two adults left their seats and headed towards the common room, Kanan pinching his nose. Never had Hera felt more in agreement with his feelings than right then. He moaned as he walked through the door to the common room, “This is so not what I wanted to deal wi…”

He trailed off and froze in the doorway. Hera pushed past him, then froze as well.

Ezra was there, with his lightsaber out and activated. Sabine stood next to him, her blasters trained on the figure in the Imperial uniform, while Zeb was between the two parties.

“Hera?” Ezra’s gaze flicked between her and Kallus. “What’s  _ he _ doing here?”

“Captain Andor said he’s Fulcrum.”

Sabine and Ezra just stared, their mouths open. If she hadn’t been in the middle of a battle at the time, Hera’s reaction to the news probably would’ve been the same.

“Here’s what we’re going to do. Rex is looking after the survivors, and Chopper and AP-5 are manning the bridge, so we can all stay and deal with this.” It didn’t escape Hera’s notice that Kallus’s eyes were fearfully flicking from person to person. She grabbed a pair of loose binders off a table. 

“We’re going to put these on Kallus and then we’re going to have a  _ long _ talk.” She looked at the Imperial. “That okay with you,  _ Agent Kallus _ ?” She loaded her last phrase with sarcasm.

“ _ Ex _ -agent. And yes.”

Hera ignored the snorts from her teenage crewmembers and gestured to Kallus to hold out his wrists. “Take off your gloves.”

He looked like he was thinking of protesting, though she didn’t know why he would, but apparently thought better of it and took off his gloves. His bare wrists were exposed and the Spectres could see bleeding cuts along his wrists in the outline of binders.

She hesitated but he shoved his wrists towards her, so she clamped the binders on, keeping them a lot looser than she had originally intended. “Sit.”

Kallus sighed and started to walk towards the seat farthest from her. More like limped. She hadn’t realized it then, but now that she thought about it, while he’d been standing, he’d been leaning to the left. He sat down, slowly and without bending his right leg or his torso.

“Is that injury still bothering you?” Zeb asked.

Kallus gave a humorless laugh over Kanan’s muttered ‘don’t wanna know’, “No, that was almost completely healed. Thrawn rebroke it during our… altercation.”

Hera ignored them. “Now, Kallus, you’re going to sit and explain.”

He looked down for a moment. “Well, there’s not much to explain. I’ve been feeding the Rebellion information as Fulcrum for the past few months and-”

“Why?”

“I’m sorry, what?”

“Why did you become Fulcrum? Why’d you help the Rebellion?”

“I followed Zeb’s advice.”

“ _ Zeb? _ ” Ezra mouthed.

“While we were on Bahryn, he told me to ask questions. I looked into Geonosis.”

“Well?” Zeb prompted. “What did you find?”

“Nothing.”

Ezra frowned. “So then why would you-”

Kallus interrupted. “I found nothing because the records of what happened are not in the Imperial mainframe. They can only be accessed at Scarif. I knew full well what that meant. The Empire - we - did it.”

Hera nodded slightly. She’d wondered about Geonosis. It had been a shock to everyone, especially Rex, when the lifeform scan had come back negative. They’d suspected the Empire had done it, but Kallus had just confirmed it.

“I also checked what happened to the former inhabitants of Tarkintown. Only a minority could have been considered rebel sympathizers and none of them outright rebels, yet they were all processed as rebels. By the time I looked into it, they were all…”

“All what?” Ezra bit out.

“All dead!” Kallus’s voice gave out slightly and it sank to a near whisper. “They were all dead.”

“So after you looked into all of this,” Hera prodded, “you, what, contacted the rebellion?”

“Yes. The head Fulcrum at the time said that they believed I could be valuable to the rebellion, given my high position within the Empire. We remained in contact until someone else became the head of Fulcrum. I supplied information regularly during that time.”

She nodded. His defection still made little sense to her, but at least she had some information now. “Okay, I have two questions for you. The first one is more of something I’ve been curious about. What happened to Aresko and Grint?”

Kallus looked down at his hands, apparently very interested in working them together. His answer was mumbled, barely understandable. “They died.”

“How?”

“The Grand Inquisitor beheaded them, by order of Grand Moff Tarkin.”

The Spectres’ eyes widened and Hera let out a gasp. “How did you find out? I can’t imagine the Empire would want their followers knowing they murdered two of their own.”

“I didn’t have to find out. I was there.”

“Why?”

“He was making a point about failure, a lesson for me and… Minister Tua.”

Hera didn’t miss the way Kallus’s voice changed when he mentioned Tua. It went from stiff and emotionless, as if giving a military report, to halting and quiet, almost choked. Minister Tua’s death was perhaps one of the worst charges she’d held against him, right up there with torturing Kanan and slaughtering the Lasats. It had changed him from an enemy to a monster in her eyes, and yet he now appeared to regret it, to even be broken by it.

“I… see. Anyway, my second question. Why didn’t you leave when Captain Andor sent a man to get you out?”

Kallus cocked his head, his eyes unfocusing for a moment, then blinking rapidly. “Who’s Captain Andor?”

“Head Fulcrum.”

“Ah.”

He didn’t say anything for a while and looked lost in memories, but right before Hera asked again, he spoke. “I believed there was more I could do. I’d framed someone else as Fulcrum,” again a look of regret, “and Thrawn was still planning offensives against the rebs - Rebellion. And, honestly, I didn’t see a life for myself out of the Empire.”

Kanan joined the conversation at last. “So the operative came in, said he was getting you out, you said no, and he just left?”

“Yes, but he left me with a parting gift. He gave me a lullaby.”

Hera frowned but the others just looked confused. Zeb voiced it for them. “What’s a lullaby?”

“Suicide pill.” The room went silent. “I actually expected to have used it by now. I meant to, after Thrawn caught me, but there was never a time for me to get it.”

“So, uh,” Ezra stammered, “was there more you could do?”

Kallus sighed, pushing fleeting emotions off his face. “No. Unbeknownst to me, Thrawn had discovered and reasoned out that I was Fulcrum. He decided to use me. Somehow he knew about your planned attack on Lothal and he used that information as a trap. I went to transmit my warning and he caught me. He… used my transmission to find your base. He cross-referenced its trajectory with that of General Dodonna’s fleet and sent the fleet to the resulting location.”

“So he found us because of you! I knew you were-”

“Leave it, kid.” Zeb, of all people, snapped. “Thrawn tricked Kallus. And if he hadn’t tried to warn us, we would’ve been destroyed when we tried that raid on Lothal.”

Kallus gave Zeb a look and he responded with a nod of acknowledgment or affirmation. Maybe a bit of respect. Kallus looked away, looking like Kanan had, once upon a time, whenever someone referred to him as a Jedi.

“So…” Zeb paused, thinking, then smiled. “... Kal, how’d you escape?”

The entire room choked as one at the nickname, save for the ignoring Lasat. Zeb could be borderline insanely daring and yet act as if he’d done nothing.

“Governor Pryce ordered me spaced and sent two ‘troopers with me to do it. I knocked them out in the lift and got in an escape pod.”

“You knocked them out and escaped, while restrained?” Sabine’s Mandalorian respect for another warrior’s prowess forced her out of her stubborn silence. Kallus shrugged.

“It was only two and they were ordinary stormtroopers. Not even death troopers. And I removed the binders after knocking them out. Their buckets make knocking them out easy, anyway. Well-placed blow’ll do it.”

The anti-Imperial mocking term for stormtroopers’ helmets dropped easily, even unthinkingly, from his lips. He sat like an Imperial, was dressed like one, and for the most part sounded like one, but every now and then something… rebellious crept into his speech. Hera knew for a fact that the term ‘lullaby’ was not used by the ISB, and they certainly didn’t call the stormtrooper helmets ‘buckets’.

“Not bad,” Sabine acknowledged grudgingly. “For an ISB agent.”

“ _ Ex _ -agent,” he insisted. “I’m not an Imp anymore. I’m a reb whether you like it or not.”

Hera raised her eyebrows. Imp. A rebellion name for Imperials. “And when did you start thinking that?”

The returning smile was the furthest thing from an actual smile she’d ever seen. It was more of a grimace, pulling his lips from his teeth. “Today, actually. As Fulcrum, I could do what I thought was right, while still being an Imperial. I was helping the rebellion, of course, but I was also performing my duties for the Empire. When Thrawn caught me, after we fought, he said I had the heart of a rebel. How correct he was, I can’t say, but I am a rebel now.”

“What’d you say to him?”

“‘I’ll take that as a compliment.’ He didn’t care for that very much.”

For the first time since this conversation had started, Hera noticed his physical appearance. The cut lip and swollen eye were still there, and his face was pale. His eyes unfocused every now and then and he blinked rapidly, possibly trying to refocus.

“Are you alright?”

He waved her off. “I saw several of your people before I was taken here. There are far more serious injuries that require tending. I’ll be fine.”

To prove his point, he stood up, but everyone there saw what a mistake that was. His right leg gave out and he hit the ground, the binders on his wrists preventing him from protecting his head. He bit back a moan, teeth clenched, but his jaw slacked as he slumped, unconscious. Hera jumped into action.

“Kanan, go clear your bunk. I’m putting him there for now. Ezra, Sabine. Get medical supplies. Zeb, I want you to carry him to Kanan’s room. Move!”

The Spectres scrambled to obey her.

After removing Kallus’s vest and shearing off his tunic, she sucked in a breath. There wasn’t an unbruised rib and she suspected that while few of them were cracked, it was because the rest were broken. Bruises in the shape of boots, fists, and blaster butts were clearly marked along his gut and back, crisscrossed by dripping blood from barely clotting cuts.

One of his legs, the right one, was broken and the other wasn’t much better. While he had been leaning to his left, weight had still been on the broken limb and keeping all of his weight on the left side certainly wouldn’t have prevented pain.

A light feel of his face and head revealed a broken orbital bone and a bulbous knob on the back of the head. He’d spoken so put-together and composed that she’d never suspected how serious of a concussion he must have been martyring through.

Spectres 1 and  4-6 crowded at the door as she applied bacta, bandages, and a disturbingly high and likely necessary amount of perigen patches. Hera sighed. She was having a change of heart about her longtime enemy and the last thing she needed was the rest of the team near to witness it.

She still had problems to hash out, not least of them Kallus’s torturing of Kanan. But somehow she knew her feelings would be resolved, eventually. 

Because when she looked at the man who lay unconscious in front of her, she didn’t see Agent Kallus. She looked at the man who’d clung to consciousness and refused medical aid because others needed it more, who said the words ‘bucket’ and ‘Imp’ as the most natural thing in the galaxy, who had boldly headed into a suicide mission without blinking, and could not think of him as anything but a rebel.

**Author's Note:**

> I realize that in the show, only Thrawn's chest and up were visible, but I changed it to make what I had in mind possible. I also know that some of the dialogue is different from the show. I spent a lot of time on YouTube preparing for this, so any dialogue difference is purposeful for the AU. I have no idea how long Kallus was Fulcrum (Google wasn’t helpful) so I just guessed.


End file.
